“...When God created the world, he consolidated it through the four elements, namely fire, water, air and earth... Fire has five powers namely heat, cold, moisture, air and movement... The air has four powers, namely, it sends out the dew, produces everything green, causes the breath of wind to blow, whereby it ripens everything... The water has fifteen powers, namely, heat, air, moisture, flooding, the speed, the mobility, it gives the trees the sap, the fruits the taste, the plants the green... it carries birds, feeds fish, allows animals to live in its warmth, keeps the reptiles in their foam and keeps everything going Life. ...The earth has seven powers; Sometimes it is cold in summer and warm in winter, has the power to grow and wither, produces germs, keeps living beings alive and supports everything...
Fire, water, air and earth
"... Man has fire, air, water and earth and he is made up of them... all the elements work with him and he with them...
Hildegard sees healing, the healing of humans, in connection with creation. Here, in the middle of the cosmos, humans are in close interaction with the four world elements: fire, water, air and earth, which make up the world, but also the structure of the human body. According to Hildegard, when humans disregard the cosmic laws and brutally destroy creation, this also has considerable, even catastrophic consequences for their health.
The four elements, fire, air, water and earth in humans
“Fire has five forces in nature, just as humans have five sense organs. Fire manifests itself as heat when we see, as cold when we smell, as moisture when we taste, as air when we hear, and as movement when we touch. The air with its four forces is in the breath and in the reason of man. It performs its service in man through its living breath, which is nothing other than the soul, and it is the wing of his flight when man draws the breath into himself and lets it out so that he can live... The water with its fifteen powers is preserved in the moisture and in the blood of man... The flesh of man from the earth...
If the four elements in humans are in harmony, then, according to Hildegard, humans can live as a whole.